72 Cannabis Plants Uprooted Across Mauritius in One-Day Sweep

Mauritius anti-drug officers conducted a series of coordinated operations on Friday, 18 September 2026, uprooting 72 cannabis plants from abandoned land and forested areas across several parts of the island. No suspects have been arrested and investigations are ongoing. **The operations, location by location** The day's activity began early. At 7:42 a.m., officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU) — the Mauritius Police Force's specialist narcotics division — entered a forest in Citron Donis and uprooted seven cannabis plants ranging from 5 cm to 20 cm in height. Less than 40 minutes later, at 8:15 a.m., a second team found seven more plants, between 15 cm and 25 cm tall, in the forest at Anse Raffin. At 10:30 a.m., officers moved to the woodland area of Tamarin on the west coast, where they seized five plants measuring between 35 cm and 1.5 metres. A larger cache followed at 11:30 a.m. in Bambous Virieux, where 29 plants — ranging from 10 cm to 65 cm — were discovered on an abandoned plot of land. The final operation of the day took place at 12:30 p.m. in Anse Jonchée, where 24 plants between 30 cm and 1.1 metres tall were uprooted from wasteland. **Police helicopter support played a key role** The ADSU was assisted in some locations by the Police Helicopter Squadron (PHS), which provided aerial surveillance to help pinpoint cultivation sites hidden within dense forest and scrubland. The use of helicopter support reflects growing efforts by Mauritian authorities to detect cannabis growing in remote or hard-to-access areas. **Growers remain unidentified** Despite the scale of the sweep — five locations, five hours, 72 plants — no cultivators have been identified. Cannabis plants found on abandoned or forested land are typically grown covertly, making it difficult for police to link the crops to specific individuals without direct observation or forensic evidence. Investigations continue across all five sites. **What this means** Cannabis cultivation remains illegal in Mauritius under the Dangerous Drugs Act. While the plants seized on Friday were relatively young — many well under one metre tall — operations like these are designed to disrupt the supply chain before crops reach maturity and enter local distribution networks. The geographic spread of Friday's finds, from the west coast (Tamarin) to the east (Bambous Virieux, Anse Jonchée), suggests cultivation is not confined to any single region of the island. Source: ION News